Of Undergraduate Research in Communications

ofElon Undergraduate Journal Research in Communications EJ Spring 2 0 1 3 Issue School of Communications Elon University Joining the World of Journals Welcome to the nation’s first and, to our knowledge, only undergraduate research journal in communications. We discovered this fact while perusing the Web site of the Council on Undergraduate Research, which lists and links to the 60 or so undergraduate research journals nationwide (http://www.cur.org/ugjournal. html). Some of these journals focus on a discipline (e.g., Journal of Undergraduate Research in Physics), some are university-based and multidisciplinary (e.g., MIT Undergraduate Research Journal), and some are university-based and disciplinary (e.g., Furman University Electronic Journal in Undergraduate Mathematics). The Elon Journal is the first to focus on undergraduate research in journalism, media and communications. The School of Communications at Elon University is the creator and publisher of the online journal. The first issue was published in Spring 2010 under the editorship of Dr. Byung Lee, associate professor in the School of Communications. The three purposes of the journal are: • To publish the best undergraduate research in Elon’s School of Communications each term, • To serve as a repository for quality work to benefit future students seeking models for how to do undergraduate research well, and • To advance the university’s priority to emphasize undergraduate student research. The Elon Journal is published twice a year, with spring and fall issues. Articles and other materials in the journal may be freely downloaded, reproduced and redistributed without permission as long as the author and source are properly cited. Student authors retain copyright own- ership of their works. Celebrating Student Research This journal reflects what we enjoy seeing in our students -- intellectual maturing. As 18 year olds, some students enter college wanting to earn a degree, but unsure if they want an education. They may question whether communication theory has anything to do with real life. Ready to start their media careers, many would rather focus on workplace skills than analyze issues and concepts. In Elon’s School of Communications, we strive for a balance among concepts, writing and production. All are important. Student media and organizations are terrific venues for the practice of journalism, broadcasting, public relations, advertising and cinema. In turn, this journal celebrates the life of the intellect through undergraduate research. It represents the intellectual maturing that occurs by the senior year. These published articles make us aware of the solitary hours that students spend in research and the untold hours in which student and teacher-mentor work together to revise a paper for public consumption. It’s exciting to see students conducting research in such arenas as social media and press freedom. By focusing attention on undergraduate research, this journal helps reinforce all that we think a university should be. Dr. Paul Parsons, Dean School of Communications Editorial Board Twenty-six faculty members in Elon’s School of Communications served as the Editorial Board that selected the nine undergraduate research papers appearing in the 2013 spring issue. From more than 100 research papers written in advanced School of Communications classes, 18 papers were submitted to the journal by communications students through the encouragement and mentoring of capstone teachers and other professors in the school. Professors who served as the Editorial Board were Janna Anderson, Lucinda Austin, Vanessa Bravo, Lee Bush, Naeemah Clark, David Copeland, Vic Costello, Michelle Ferrier, Michael Frontani, Kenn Gaither, Mandy Gallagher, Jessica Gisclair, Don Grady, Anthony Hatcher, Derek Lackaff, Julie Lellis, Harlen Makem- son, Barbara Miller, Phillip Motley, Sang Nam, Thomas Nelson, George Padgett, Paul Parsons, Glenn Scott, Michael Skube, Amanda Sturgill, Frances Ward-Johnson and Qian Xu. Thanks should also go to Bryan Baker, who videotaped student introductions to their projects, and Colin Donohue, who uploaded the PDF version of this issue and student videos. Editor’s Note This issue has manuscripts covering a wide gamut of topics. 2012 was a presidential election year, so many students were especially interested in how the media covered elections. Other research topics covered included advertisements in men’s magazines and public service announcements on kids’ health; popular rap/ hip-hop lyrics and students’ response to the lyrics; media use of images in framing minority groups; and the portrayal of the American legal system in prime time television crime dramas. In her paper, “Social Media and Politics: Twitter use in the Second Congressional District of Virginia,” Julia Caplan content analyzed tweets to find how two state politicians in irginiaV used Twitter. She found that they primarily used the social media site to post information and tweet about their current activities. Through an examination of media coverage of the presidential debates, Rachel Raymond checked whether candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney told the truth in the three debates. She also surveyed Elon students’ perceptions of the candidates’ debate performance and lies. Stephanie Petrich analyzed CNN, ABC and Fox News to find out how they assessed presidential campaign advertisements. She found the three news outlets used political analysts and anchors to critique negative or popular campaign advertisements. Mariah Irvin investigated how women were used as broadcast reporters and sources in hard news stories in the 2012 presidential election. The study found that “male reporters were assigned more hard news than female reporters, and they were a little more likely to assigned to hard news than soft news. Male sources were used more as experts in hard news by both male and female reporters.” Joseph Ziemba analyzed textual and visual messages in advertisements for dietary supplements in men’s fitness and lifestyle magazines. He found that advertisements appealed to viewers’ emotions or sense of self rather than information on products. Maria Georgiadis found that the Let’s Move! campaign urged children to increase physical activity and to eat healthy food. She found that the public service announcements in the campaign employed “a series of separate but cohesive PSA ads that displayed consistency in messages, logos and themes, ultimately creating a brand for the campaign that was easily recognizable to publics.” Gretchen Cundiff found that popular rap/hip-hop music has misogynistic lyrics, such as violence against women, which, scholars worry, might desensitize individuals to harassment of women and degrada- tion of women. But most male students in the survey “held negative views about rap/hip-hop music compared to most women holding neutral views of the genre.” Caitlin O’Donnell wrote a paper on how minorities—na- tive Americans, Women, African Americans, Japanese Americans and Muslim Americans—were visually portrayed in the mass media. Sam Parker’s article investigated the portrayal of the American legal system in prime time television crime dramas. Her study suggested “though suspect treatment is portrayed fairly accurately in prime time network television crime dramas, tendencies of exaggeration and inaccuracy ex- ist through the case building process and trial length.” I hope these papers on diverse topics would inspire students to find a topic they have a passion for. Dr. Byung Lee Journal Editor The Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications Volume 4, No. 1 • Spring 2013 Social Media and Politics: Twitter Use in the Second Congressional District of Virginia Julian Caplan 5 Truth and Context in the 2012 Presidential Debates Rachel Southmayd 15 Assessing Network TV Ad Watches in the 2012 Presidential Election Stephanie Petrich 26 Women in TV Broadcast News: Reporters and Sources in Hard News Stories Mariah Irvin 39 Pumping Steel and Sex Appeal: Message Strategies and Content in Dietary Supplement Advertisements Joseph Ziemba 48 Motivating Behavior Change: A Content Analysis of Public Service Announcements From the Let’s Move! Campaign Maria Georgiadis 60 The Influence of Rap/Hip-Hop Music: A Mixed-Method Analysis on Audience Perceptions of Misogynistic Lyrics and the Issue of Domestic Violence Gretchen Cundiff 71 Visual Persuasion: The Media’s Use of Images in Framing People Groups Caitlin O’Donnell 9 4 The Portrayal of the American Legal System in Prime Time Television Crime Dramas Samantha Parker 108 Social Media and Politics: Twitter use in Virginia by Julia Caplan — 5 Social Media and Politics: Twitter Use in the Second Congressional District of Virginia Julia Caplan* Strategic Communications Major Elon University Abstract With social media recently evolving as a platform for social, informational, and political exchanges, it comes as no surprise that in the last few years several politicians have integrated Twitter into their cam- paigns. The goal of this study was to gain insight into how Republican Congressman Scott Rigell and Demo- cratic candidate Paul Hirschbiel—candidates in the 2nd Congressional District of Virginia—cultivated Twitter to attract voters in the 2012 election. A content analysis of the characteristics and tactical strategies of these Twitter posts revealed that the two congressional candidates primarily used Twitter to post information and tweet about their current activity. It was also found that Rigell posted more direct

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